MOSCOW, March 17. /TASS/. Russia in 2015-2016 will upgrade at least ten strategic bombers Tu-95MS, the press-service of the United Aircraft-building Corporation told TASS on Tuesday.

"Last year the Russian Air Force received eight upgraded Tu-95MS bombers, and at least ten more will re-enter duty in 2015-2016," the UAC press-service quotes the chief of the flight test and tune-up base at Zhukovsky, Alexander Kosarev, as saying.

The Zhukovsky upgrade base (an affiliate of Tupolev) replaces radio-electronic equipment and improves the parameters of the navigation complex and landing systems.

The Russian Defense Ministry is set to continue the rearmament program in the armed forces this year. Infographics by TASS

"In the process of modernization some fundamentally new technological processes had to be mastered and new equipment and tools employed. Everything was accomplished within tight deadlines and with high quality," the Zhukovsky base’s deputy chief for production, Vladimir Khokhlov, said.

The Russian Air Force has several dozen Tu-95MS bombers carrying strategic cruise missiles X-55. At the end of 2014 Air Force commander Viktor Bondarev said that in 2014 eight planes of this type were returned to the Air Force after overhaul and upgrade. In 2015, Russia’s fleet of Tu-95MS will grow to 43.

Around 70% of the Russian Armed Forces’ strategic aviation is expected to be modernized by 2020, according to the defense minister.